A Larger Universe
by kdzl
Summary: After she's been missing for a year and a half, the team is elated to find JJ and rescue her. But what they find on the other side of the door is much more terrifying than any unsub they have ever faced. Complete--For Now
1. Chapter 1: Barefoot

_**AN/ So, I think I'm in a mood for weird stories, but I couldn't get this one out of my head.**_

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"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it."

_-Adolf Hitler_

* * *

"So, we have an entrance point in the back of the house, the front door and a small door that leads out the basement." Morgan began, pointing at the map at the indicated areas.

"If she's being kept against her will, he'll probably keep her hidden in somewhere that visitors wouldn't suspect." Emily insisted, ready to bring her friend home after a year and a half. "We also need to be ready for any traps."

"She will also likely be held in a different place than her son." Reid spoke up, strapping on his bullet-proof vest.

"If the boy's still alive." Rossi reminded them. "If this guy's a sadist like we think he is, it's likely that he could have killed her son and made her watch."

"Let's not worry about the horrific details until we know all the facts." Hotch quickly scolded his own mentor. "We treat every victim like they're still alive until we know otherwise. We don't stop searching--ever."

"Let's do this." Morgan said to the group who all smiled in agreement.

"JJ, just hold on, we're coming." Emily promised quietly, hoping her friend would hear their presence.

* * *

"Perfect, just perfect." Sarah smiled to herself as she got the apple pie out of the oven, just in time too. Her husband was expected home any minute and supper was just about done.

"Henry, Darling, go wash up." She commanded softly to her young son, patting his shoulder affectionately as he played with his Hot-Wheels car on the kitchen floor. "Your Daddy is going to be home soon and then we're going to be eating."

He nodded emphatically before jumping to his feet and running to the bathroom. She felt her heart strings tug as she heard the soft pattering of his feet on the upstairs hard wood. Surely she had the perfect life. And in three months, it would be even more perfect with the birth of their daughter, she rubbed her growing belly carefully, loving the light kicking that her future child gave in response. This was pure bliss.

* * *

"On the count of three." Rossi bellowed outside the front door as they were about to kick it in. The front door was bound to be less fortified than the others, so the chances of any traps were lessened.

Emily, Morgan and a SWAT agent who he didn't know the name nodded as they silently counted down, ready to break down the door at any moment.

The door came down quickly, a symbol of the effort the team had poured into finding their missing comrade and the rushing into the small house became the lone hope for recovering their lost comrade.

They broke into the kitchen, expecting it to be a way down to the basement where surely JJ was being kept. But what they found on the other side of the door was much more disturbing than any UnSub lairs they had seen before.

"Can I help you?" Sarah asked nervously, wondering what all of these nice men were doing in her freshly cleaned kitchen, she would have to clean it before Peter came home.

Her question was met with silence.

"JJ?" Emily cried disbelievingly. There was no way her fellow feminist was now captive in some 1950s time warp.

The barefoot woman before the seasoned FBI agents simply looked at them in confusion. "My husband is due home any minute, but you're welcome to wait in the parlor. I'll just have to add a little to supper for everyone."

* * *

_"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The truth is the mortal enemy of the lie."_

_-Joseph Goebbels_


	2. Chapter 2: Combat Boots

_**AN/ I got so excited with this story, that I've had the chapter done for a couple of days. I couldn't help but want to post, so here it is. I hope you enjoy it. If not, then too bad. I've also noticed that I've had more swearing--not much, just more than I normally write--in my last few stories, so if you're wondering what's up...who knows?**_

**_I don't own Criminal Minds._**

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"Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies"

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

* * *

It took a moment to facilitate action, but Rossi soon found his composure and spoke quickly."JJ--er, Ma'am, we'd like you to come with us. To _talk_." He emphasized completely unsure at the recent change of events.

The woman who appeared to be JJ--but couldn't possibly be because of her current condition--looked at them in shock. "I'm sorry, I can't."

Hotch spoke next, positive that this had to be JJ, but certain that she would never have---_become?--_like this. "Ma'am, I'm sorry, there's not another option."

"It's entirely out of the question, I have supper to prepare." She said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?" Emily said in confusion.

"I've said too much already. I'm so sorry." Sarah took a deep breath as she realized that she soon would likely be punished. "But if you wait in the parlor, I'll have supper finished in a few moments."

"I just can't believe it." Emily said as the group of profilers and FBI Agents stood outside the small kitchen, trying to decide what to do. "Tell me that's not her."

"It could just be a woman that looks like her." Reid mused.

"We should keep looking for her then." Emily said hopefully, looking at her fellow colleagues with intensity. "JJ's here somewhere. Just because McCombs said that she was here, doesn't mean that she necessarily is. He could have lied to us." She continued as they looked at her doubtfully.

"Or it could be a clone." Reid added. "There have also been huge advancements in artificial intelligence."

"So, you're saying that woman in there could be a robot?" Rossi scoffed disbelievingly.

"Its a better explanation than that she is JJ and she's consciously chosen to become Donna Reed!" Emily retorted.

"Cloning, Robotics, you would be surprised at the technological advancements that--" Reid agreed before he was cut off by light footsteps that descended the staircase. The team quickly fell silent.

As quickly as the boy saw that there were guests in the front room, he bolted up the stairs. Hearing her son's plight, Sarah left supper unattended while she searched him out. Finding him sitting quietly on the bed, she mentally praised him for avoiding punishment and being obedient. Henry was not allowed downstairs when there was company--he was supposed to sit quitely on his bed until company had left.

"Momma, who's that?" He asked.

"I'm not sure, but you wait here while Momma figures it out. Okay?" She said, gently straightening his short hair and fixing his perfectly straight collar. Any imperfections would not be acceptable once her husband came home. "Then daddy will come home and we'll have a nice supper. But make sure your room is clean." She instructed.

"Yes, momma." Henry said obediently and proceeded to put away his toys that were on the floor.

The team overheard the entire conversation from their spot in the parlor. "Nuh uh, kid. It's her." Rossi said after a moment, completely awestruck at what he had just witnessed, but certain that the woman now descending the stairs was the colleague they had been searching for. "It's definitely her."

"I agree." Hotch said, though he too was disturbed at JJ's fate, he wasn't in denial.

"What the hell happened?" Emily asked angrily.

"He brainwashed her." Reid said, horrified at the fate that had been imposed on his longtime friend.

"I know that. But---" Emily and the rest of the team fell silent as each member contemplated what next to do. "She's stuck in a damn time warp."

Morgan smiled as he could tell that Emily was practically coming unglued. Seeing his friend like that hadn't been a friendly sight for him either, but he suspected that Emily was so horrified that she couldn't grasp what was happening. "So, what next?" Morgan asked. Truthfully, they had all expected to find a tortured and emaciated JJ chained to a wall in a basement. They definitely had _not_ expected to find their friend baking in the kitchen with a baby bump. He wasn't quite sure what was worse.

His question was met with silence. No one knew quite what to do in this situation. "Take her to the hospital? She's going to need like a de-programmer or some type of--" Emily offered, her statement trailing off as she was still entirely unsure of what to do for her friend.

"This is first and foremost an investigation." Hotch said sternly, "We treat her as any other witness. We'll take her down to the station, interrogate her, and see if we can use anything she says against Peter McCombs."

"So how do we get her to leave?" Rossi asked, moderately certain that although this version of JJ seemed to be the ultimate domestic housewife, that she still carried some spunk. If she didn't want to go with them, she would definitely find a way to avoid it.

"I think the only option is to lie to her." Morgan said, noticing Hotch's surprised look, he continued. "If he _has_brainwashed her, then she's not about to disobey him. It sounds like Henry's a part of this too. The only option is to convince her that McCombs asked us to bring her to him."

"Or we could just take her kicking and screaming." Rossi mused. "Either way, she's getting in that car."

"At the expense of her seeing us as the enemy?" Emily countered. "If she _is_attached to McCombs, then we don't want to appear as a threat. We're going to have to help her make the adjustments, so whatever we do, we can't appear to be against her."

"She's right." Reid agreed, "Most specialists agree that those coming out of cults and other situations where they have bonded to their captors need a stable environment supported by those who knew them before the ordeal."

"I think JJ deserves more than us lying to her." Hotch pointed out. He despised liars, and even in the name of protecting one of their own, he was certain that there had to be a better alternative.

"I agree with Emily." Rossi said quickly, knowing that his opinion might sway the younger Unit Chief.

"Big surprise." Morgan muttered. Ever since Rossi and Emily started dating, the seasoned profiler would take the side of the brunette, swaying decisions in the way she wanted to go.

"I think Emily should do it." Reid supplied.

"Me?" Emily shrank back, not certain that she felt entirely comfortable lying to one of her best friends. "Why me?"

"She's more likely to see the rest of us as a threat. You're a woman, you--"

"I get it." Emily rolled her eyes, and stepped back into the kitchen quickly so as not to loose her nerve.

When the woman posing as JJ saw her enter the room, she stood quickly, "Supper's just about ready, and--"

"Ma'm, your husband asked us to bring you and your son to him." Emily interrupted, sickened by the thought that she had just referred to Peter as JJ's husband.

"Oh." The blonde stood in front of the sink as though she were unsure of what to do next. "But did he give you my shoes? I'm not allowed to go outside with my shoes."

Emily stood dumstruck for a moment and then offered her own combat boots. "Here, wear these." She said, quickly taking off her

"Okay." Sarah accepted them immediately, "Henry has his own shoes upstairs. Women can't be trusted with their own shoes." She said simply.

"Oh. Yeah." Emily agreed deftly, in complete disbelief that this could happen to her friend. "I'll go get him." She offered, desperate to get away from the Stepford version of her best friend.

Moments later, Emily found herself standing barefoot in front of the front door, trying to coax JJ out of the house. _This is beyond ridiculous._ She thought.

"He shouldn't go out like that." Sarah said softly to Emily as she pointed at Reid. "His hair."

"What about his hair?" Emily asked, feeling as though she were talking to a small child.

"He'll be punished, it's too _unkempt_."

"He'll be fine." Rossi assured JJ as the team tried to assist Emily in encouraging their former colleague out of the small home she had been kept in for nearly a year and a half. "Let's go."

"NO!" JJ said emphatically although Rossi tried to push her through the door frame, she had in no way lost the athleticism that they were all used to. She shoved her hands out and braced herself against the door frame, frantically trying to stop them from leaving the house. "We can't."

"Reid, comb your hair." Morgan said, quickly trying to diffuse the situation. Although this was absolutely preposterous, they needed JJ's witness testimony to put away McCombs. They didn't have time for this.

"What?" The genius asked in surprise.

"Just do it kid." Rossi said, grabbing a brush out of Emily's purse. "And if we have to cut your hair, so be it. We're getting out of here."

Soon, once Reid had managed his scraggly locks, JJ was ready to go. The other profilers left her and Henry with Emily, hoping that she would be able to convince JJ to leave and go down to the station.

"Are you sure Peter asked for me?" Sarah whispered to Emily, though the other profilers were standing around, not quite knowing what to do.

"Yes. Definitely, he told us exactly where to find you." Emily assured her, trying to make sense of the ridiculous scene unfolding before her eyes.

"Alright, let's go."

* * *

"What are you doing here?" Peter McCombs asked angrily. A uniformed detective had unfortunately been moving the UnSub to a different interrogation room at the exact moment that JJ and the others entered the precinct. "Sarah!" He said threateningly as he saw his son trail in behind the FBI Agents.

The blonde instantly went rigid as she realized she had been misled. "He didn't ask for me." She said, in an almost inaudible whisper.

"No, he didn't. But we really need to talk to you. We really need your help." Reid said as he gently nudged her toward the closest interrogation room.

Morgan motioned to Emily that he would watch Henry in the other room. Emily nodded gratefully, and turned to the matter at hand. They had to get more information about McCombs. Finding JJ would have been enough, but it was no longer apparent that she had been held against her will, and they needed something--anything--to be able to nail this cult leader.

"You lied to me." Sarah said softly, more to herself than anyone else as she moved to stand in the corner--getting as far away from Emily and Reid as possible.

"I did. Because we really need your help." Emily admitted, wanting to establish a baseline for honesty.

"Oh." JJ said, seemingly accepting the answer.

"Sarah?" Emily began questioningly, careful to keep her voice very kind. "Why did he call you that?"

"Because that's my name." Sarah informed, looking at Emily strangely.

"No." Emily corrected slowly. "Your name is Jennifer Lynn Jareau--"

Sarah shook her head, "My name is Sarah Jane Cooper McCombs, it has been all my life."

"Whether you realize it or not, your name isn't Sarah." Emily insisted. "You were born in Northern Pennsylvania on July--"

"No." Sarah said stubbornly. "I was born up there, up near the creek, up near my home. How else would I have met Peter?"

"You might want to take a seat." Emily sighed, pulling up a chair for her former friend as she gave Reid a look informing that it was time for him to go. He complied easily, intent to watch the interrogation of the man who had done this to his friend.

"J--Sarah," Emily corrected herself, sitting down herself so that she could seem less threatening. "Something really strange happened to a friend of mine a year and a half ago."

Sarah nodded intently, unsure of what this had to do with her. She was much more anxious to speak with her husband and go home, but she knew that she would be punished if she wasn't polite so she sat there silently.

"My friend--her name was JJ--" Emily added, breathing in slowly as she uncertainly navigated the path in which she was going have to explain this whole mess. "My friend and her son were abducted after a man killed her fiance."

"No." Sarah said softly, slightly horrified.

"Forensic evidence suggests there were at least four men. From what we've learned, we think two of them held her back while one held her son, and the final man not only took her fiance's life, but forced her to watch as the life left his body." Emily said sadly.

"What was his name?" Sarah asked, quietly.

"Will." Emily said softly. "They had a son named Henry--named after her dad." Emily pushed a picture of JJ, taken right before her disappearance, on the table.

Sarah couldn't help but acknowledge the similarity between her and the picture of the woman in front of her. She couldn't help but have a brief flash, of something she knew had never happened--it seemed so much more than a feeling of empathy for the woman. It was less than a memory. More like a fog that she couldn't seem to erase.

_"Please!" JJ sobbed as a large burly man held her securely as a smaller man punched Will in the stomach. "Just leave us alone!"_

_"I'm afraid we can't do that, Sweetheart." The smaller man looked at her lecherously._

_"Leave her alone!" Will cried, earning a slap to his face._

_"She belongs to us now." The man holding her son said as the smaller man took out a knife. "This is a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be."_

_"Can't we just hurry this along?" The fourth man said, almost sympathetically. "We don't have to do this."_

_"We do, and we will. Shut up Peter." The smaller man said. JJ couldn't help but feel as though that part were almost scripted._

_"Now, missy, say goodbye to your boyfriend." The smaller man said as he pressed the knife to Will's throat._

_"No!" JJ cried as she saw the blood of her fiance spilled across their living room carpet._

_"Wait until we're sure he's dead, then put them in the car. This is going to be fun."_

Sarah shook away the memory, feeling slightly nauseous with a splitting headache as she seemed to allow the fog to reveal itself. Certain that she was just envisioning the terrible situation that this woman had been forced to endure, she shook her head again. "I'm sorry, but what does that have to do with me?"

"We think--we know--that my friend, that she's you." Emily said, slightly cursing her moment of inarticulate speech.

* * *

_"Great liars are also great magicians."_

_-Adolf Hitler_


	3. Chapter 3: Keds

_**AN/ So thanks of you who are reading this. I know its wierd, but I really enjoy writing this story so it means a lot that some of you enjoy reading it.**_

**_I don't own Criminal Minds._**

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_"The truth is that men are tired of liberty."_

_-Benito Mussolini_

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"Hey baby girl." Morgan said gratefully into his cell, hoping that Garcia could tell him that they were still on the search for their mutual blonde friend.

"Okay, where is she?" Garcia demanded. "I've been waiting a year and a half to get my sparkling ray of sunshine back, and you can't even let me know you got her?"

"Garcia," Morgan tried to explain, knowing how upset she was.

"No. Stop. I'm getting on a plane in no less than thirteen minutes, and I still haven't heard anything about my bestest friend and adorable godson." She pointed out somewhat angrily. "Now where are they?"

"First, did the prints come back--?" Morgan started to ask, hoping that this woman _was_ the wrong person.

"Positive. You've got my little Jayje in the hospital, right? I'm sure Henry's probably--"

"Garcia, its complicated."

"Complicated?!?" She said incredulously, "JJ has probably been tortured by the sickest man I've ever heard of, and you're telling me it's complicated?"

"I'm sure that its not the type of complicated that your anticipating." Morgan began softly, rubbing his temples to warn off the threatening headache.

"Well, what hospital is she at? I'll be there in a jiff." She said, though he could tell through her chipper exterior, she was dying with anticipation.

"We're not at a hospital. We're at the precinct. JJ's being questioned right now." Morgan cringed, certain that his friend would blow a gasket at this revelation.

"Derek." She said firmly, and he was moderately shocked at the use of his first name, "What is going on?"

"I'm not sure how to explain this," He started, hoping that if anyone could get through to JJ, it would be Garcia.

* * *

Hotch looked at the man in front of him with distain. He couldn't even fake awe at Peter McCombs's actions, so that task fell to Rossi to complete.

"Wow, I must say I'm impressed." Rossi started, as Hotch could feel the bile rising in his throat. "Getting an FBI Agent to believe that she's your wife? That's pretty impressive."

McCombs visibly relaxed. "You shouldn't have brought her here."

Rossi nodded slightly, attempting his best to play into the man's narcissism. "But why her? Why JJ?"

"I saw her once at the shoe store. It was right after the leaders of the community agreed that my other wife's "training" was not taking hold fast enough." He shrugged as though it were simple. "And I saw her, and I just knew."

"Knew?" Hotch asked with disgust.

"Knew that she was the one. When I found out she had a son, I realized how perfect she would be."

"But, you said 'the leaders'. I thought you were the leader?" Rossi asked, hoping to find just how far McCombs stretched his scrawny authority.

"I am the leader. The only leader. But there are other "elders" who agreed with my decision. We have to discard those that aren't equipt for life in the community." McCombs said coldly. "But you still shouldn't have brought Sarah."

"Why not?" Rossi asked.

"She'll know now that she needs to be punished."

"Punished?" Rossi asked.

"For breaking the rules. Every society must have rules." McCombs said cryptically, smirking slightly as he noticed Hotch's look of disgust. "A woman needs to know her place."

"And you taught her what her place was." Rossi mused, trying to push McCombs into a confession.

"It was easy." McCombs shrugged, trying to suppress his pride at the admiration of his work.

"How?" Rossi pushed, hoping his question was taken for one of admiration rather than one of utter horror.

"A combination of things. We've found that no one technique is perfect, but combining several works wonders." McCombs smiled as though he were a salesman showing off the latest in refrigeration. "A little transference, a little electroconvulsive therapy, a little conditioning, and" Waving his hands in the air, finished "Voila. Brainwashing at its finest."

"She must have resisted." Hotch said, his first words since beginning the interview.

"Not as much as you'd think. It's a misconception that people like their freedom. People like being told what to do. Especially Sarah."

"JJ." Hotch corrected coldly.

"JJ. Especially _JJ."_McCombs conceded quickly, while giving Hotch a patronizingly sympathetic look.

"So, you eliminated her boyfriend, and then she automatically fell in love with you?" Rossi asked, McCombs mistaking the skepticism in his voice for a sense of admiration.

"I didn't _do _it, I just ordered it." McCombs explained, like a teacher trying to explain a difficult problem, he quickly shifted in his chair. "See, if she had thought that I killed her boyfriend, she would have never opened up to me. So, every time they beat her or her son, I would come in afterward. _Trying to stop them, but failing miserably."_ He scoffed at the last part as though it were utterly ridiculous. "After a while, she trusted me."

"But to erase her memories, that's pretty intense." Rossi mused.

"Again, its a lot easier than it sounds." McCombs bragged. "See, it would be a lot more effort to _erase_ her memories. So, instead, we create a new life for her, and _train_ her mind not to go looking for the old one. Eventually, in an attempt to protect itself, the brain stops looking for the memories that cause pain."

"Train?"

"Administer 'punishments'. It starts off with her name--that's usually the hardest one. Then where she grew up, her job, etc."

"And she just _let_you do all of this?" Hotch asked skeptically.

"We have plenty of people that it doesn't matter if she was willing or not. But that's why we took the boy. It's leverage."

Hotch's repulsion for the man across the table grew astronomically as Peter McCombs continued to excitedly explain his psychological torture of the woman he had worked with for years. Cataloguing each aspect of her experience grew too much for him as McCombs explained how he gained her trust and by removing all of her contact with everyone else, made her completely dependent upon him. It was a sickening case of Stockholm's Syndrome, and if someone had told him even months earlier that JJ would be a victim of attachment to her captor, he would have pushed away the idea as preposterous.

"After a while, it's so much easier for her to accept the rules that we tell her and believe what we say than to believe in her past." McCombs continued proudly.

"But what if she asks you things about her past that you don't know?" Rossi queried.

"She's not allowed to ask questions." McCombs said as though it were obvious. "The first few, we didn't have that stipulation, and the training never took for very long. By limiting their questions, it limits their ability to overpower the training."

"So how many others are there?"

McCombs sat back in his chair proudly, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

* * *

"Hey, erm...Sarah." Emily said softly to the woman who was sitting nervously in the police station. "We found you a different pair of shoes, ones that will fit." Emily tried to keep her voice warm, though she felt terribly uncomfortable. But she knew the facts at hand, JJ was currently wearing her boots, boots that were a good three sizes too big for JJ's small feet. And wearing too big of shoes was highly discouraged by podiatrists in general according to Reid.

"Oh thanks." Sarah said thoughtlessly, shrugging off the dark boots and pulling on the white keds that Emily handed her. She admired the shoes quickly, noting that they seemed just like her shoes back home. She still wasn't sure how to feel about all of this; She was fairly sure that they all had to be mistaken. There was no way that she was JJ...She was Sarah. And her husband wouldn't have done any of the things that they accused him of, she was sure of it. But darker parts of her memory, more of a haze than a memory, it was an unwelcome visitor, but it made itself known all the same.

_"Ooo, these are cute!" Garcia squealed as she and JJ entered the shoe store. She picked up a clean pair of keds and surveyed them hungrily._

_"Aren't those a little bland for you?" JJ teased. "They have no ostentatious designs."_

_"That's right my sweet Sugarsocks, they are stylishly understated. I could wear them with anything and if that doesn't work, its nothing my bedazzler can't fix." Garcia mused. "You should get a pair too."_

_"Please." JJ scoffed. "My grandma wore keds."_

_"Come on Jayje." Garcia pressed. "There is nothing like 'Nana Chic' these days. You can wear cardigans, why not keds?"_

_"If I bought them, I probably would never wear them." JJ reasoned._

_"Nonsense, they are comfy." Garcia encouraged. "Perfect for chasing around that little munchkin of yours."_

_"Fine." JJ relented, grabbing a pair in her size. "But there is not a chance that you are getting your bedazzler anywhere near them." She stated firmly, smiling at the tall man who was likewise admiring similar shoes._

Sarah pressed her hand gently to her temple, her head aching terribly...it always did when the haze popped up in her mind. She knew that the haze was a lie, a vicious lie that was meant to tempt her to leave the community. Peter had told her once that the hazes she got came from the devil, trying to make her see things that weren't there, and the reason they hurt was that the Angels were protecting her and letting her know that they were false by making her feel pain. She wouldn't trust the hazes, no matter how well they fit into the current situation she found herself. Because there was only one thing she was sure of, and that was that her and Peter were meant to be together. And if that was true, which in her mind, it was, then why would he lie to her?

* * *

_"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?"_

_-Joseph Stalin_

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**_An/ Go ahead and drop me a line on how you think this is progressing._**


	4. Chapter 4: Bunny Slippers

_**AN/ **_**_I don't own Criminal Minds._**

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_"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."_

_-Oscar Wilde_

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"So you admit that you are responsible for the murder of William LaMontagne and the kidnapping of Jennifer Jareau and her son Henry?" Rossi asked clearly.

"Definitely." Peter smiled proudly. "They deserved what they got. A woman needs to know her place." He spat with disgust.

"We're done here." Hotch said coldly, pleased that the confession would hold up in court, but devastated at what must have happened to his long time friend.

"You know, it took her almost six months to forget all of you. That's the longest anyone's ever held out." McCombs gloated as the officers entered to take him to Booking.

"Get him out of here." Hotch commanded the LEOs, knowing that if this sorry excuse for a man didn't get out of his sight, he would do something that he would never regret--however inappropriate it might be.

"She'll never be the same again." McCombs smiled deviously as he was dragged out of the room.

* * *

They thought it might be the best way to get through to her. But as Emily watched the video of McCombs's interrogation, she thought she was going to be sick.

_"Again, its a lot easier than it sounds. See, it would be a lot more effort to erase her memories. So, instead, we create a new life for her, and train her mind not to go looking for the old one. Eventually, in an attempt to protect itself, the brain stops looking for the memories that cause pain." _McCombs's deep voice betrayed the gleeful expression as he explained the psychological torture that he must have put her best friend through.

Sickened, Emily turned off the feed, unable to watch anymore. Looking over at the blonde, she was certain that the resistance she had met would have faded.

"If that's what he had to do to get us together." Sarah shrugged, "Peter loves me. He loves our son and our unborn child. He just did--" She was cut off from excusing her husband by the haze that she fought back violently. The haze, however, seemed to be growing stronger each moment that she spent around the people who had taken her from her home.

_JJ shuddered in the corner as she was taken back to the small cell where she and Henry were being kept. Today was more of the same. She wasn't sure she could take much more of this. Her hands still shook from the electrical currents that continued to course through her body. The kindest of her captors, Peter, handed Henry over to her as the others quickly left the room._

_"I'm sorry." He said, the sympathy not reaching his eyes. "But it will be better for you if you just tell them what you think they want to hear."_

_"And what do they want to hear?" She asked, her Agent mode showing through._

_"They want you to forget the past."_

_"Oh, because that's so easy." She retorted easily._

_"If you don't, I can't protect your son from what they'll do to him."_

_"To Henry?" She asked, looking down at the sleeping boy in her arms and knowing that she would do anything these monsters wanted if it meant that her son was safe._

_"As long as you do what they say, they've promised me that Henry will be okay. If you keep resisting--" He let the statement hang in the air, "There's nothing else I can do."_

"He just did what he thought he needed to." She reaffirmed, fighting the sickening feeling that welled in her stomach.

"I can't take this anymore." Emily said honestly, shaking her head as she quickly left the room. Brushing past her colleagues on the other side of the observation glass, she looked for any place of escape. She just couldn't take this anymore.

"Go." Hotch said looking at Rossi as he nodded in the direction Emily was headed.

"Hotch?" Rossi asked in confusion.

"Please. You really think I haven't figured out you are dating? Go."

* * *

"How could this have happened?" Emily asked, not turning around as Dave came up behind her.

"I don't know." He said honestly.

"She's one of the strongest people I knew, and--" Emily allowed the statement to trail off, completely unsure how to process the latest developments.

"Em, listen, it's all going to be okay."

"Is it?" She spun around to face him. "She loved Will, and now she can't even remember him. She told me that she was _grateful _that McCombs found a way to 'get them together'. She's grateful the bastard killed Will! I just--I don't even know what to think."

"Em, it's going to be okay." He repeated, not really satisfying his own questions about the future. However, if there was one thing he was certain about, it was that Emily would not abandon her friend. And he would not abandon Emily.

"How?" She asked.

"Because she has us. We can help her remember. It will be okay Emily." He wrapped his strong arms around her as he continued to try to come up with a way that all of this could be okay.

"Easy for you to say, you haven't spent the last three hours with the stepford wife." Emily bit out begrudgingly.

He pressed her closer to him, knowing that the small spark of sarcasam she was exhibiting was Emily at her best. "So what now?"

"JJ is going to be staying with me for the time being until she works out what she wants under a capable mental state. We've petitioned a judge to act as her legal advisors and be put in charge of her affairs until she's more acclimated to the real world." Emily informed slowly. "And by the looks of it, we're going to win. Jennifer Jareau has no idea who she is."

"We'll get her back." Rossi promised. "Just you wait and see."

"Sometimes, you actually remind me why I love you." Emily mused wickedly.

"Just stop talking." He muttered, kissing her softly.

* * *

Hotch walked into the room and sat across from the pregnant woman. The shock of seeing her in this condition had thrown him momentarily, but this was a case. And Aaron Hotchner was nothing if not the consummate professional. They sat in silence for almost five minutes. He could tell that the silence made her uncomfortable by the way that she shifted and fidgeted silently in her seat. But he refused to be the first one to break the silence.

"How can I help you?" She finally asked in a small voice.

"You aren't supposed to talk to me, isn't that right?" He asked, trying to keep his voice as cold as he could.

"That's right." She looked down in shame.

"Normally your husband would punish you, isn't that right? For breaking the rules?" He asked, keeping his face impassive as the blonde nodded silently.

"Why do you let him?" He asked, his voice full of skepticism. It pained him to treat her with such callousness, but he knew it was the best way to break through whatever walls she had put up. "How could you let him do this to you?"

"He's my husband." Sarah answered lamely, feeling her cheeks flush with an unfamiliar feeling of embarrassment.

"But you were an FBI Agent. How could you let him do this to you?" He repeated.

"I didn't have a choice." The blonde retorted quickly. She immediately tried to fight the hazy memories that attempted to surface, knowing that they would only cause more harm than good.

"JJ--" He started.

"Sarah." She corrected instantly.

"JJ." He responded with finality. "I know that you remember. Maybe not all of it, but you remember enough. I know that you know we're right and that Peter McCombs is a bad man. Whether you remember or not, you are an exceptional Agent that has spent her life putting people like Peter McCombs in prison because they hurt innocent people. I need you to remember that Agent. Remember the Agent that you are and tell me something that can help me."

She desperately wanted to get out of the room. She hated this man across from her. The hate welled up inside her as he kept pushing her, kept making the painful headache come back, and kept forcing the hazy memories to the surface. She had been sitting there a long time, and the growing infant inside her seemed to be sitting directly on her bladder. But for some inexplainable reason, she knew she needed to help him.

"What do you want to know?" She asked in a small voice. "I don't know a lot."

"How many others are there?" He asked.

"Peter has his 'brothers' come over once a week for a meeting. There are nineteen of them." She said.

"Do they all live close to you?" He asked.

She shook her head. "No. I've never been where they live, but I overheard Sam--Peter's brother--say once that he lived in Mantua."

* * *

"Erm..." Reid began nervously, stepping into the room nearly twenty minutes later. Sarah/JJ had just come back from the bathroom while Hotch went to check out the rest of the leads she had given him, leaving Sarah/JJ to figure out what she knew was real and what wasn't.

"What do you need?" She asked softly, noting that if she ever went home to Peter, she could possibly be killed by the punishment.

"One of the tech girls...Her name is Garcia..." He added uncertainly. "Well, the two of you used to be really close and she thought she'd send you a present. Apparently to warm you up." He shrugged as he handed over a large wrapped box. "Open it."

Carefully pulling at the edges of the wrapping, JJ opened the box to discover bright furry bunny slippers.

She didn't bother to fight the haze that she had been warned about so many times as a flash of something less than a memory flew before her eyes. She smiled as she picked up the slippers. Though she didn't remember the reason why, she knew that these were something special.

* * *

_"It is not hard to find the truth. What is hard is not to run away from it once you have found it."_

_-Anon_

* * *

**_An/ Go ahead and drop me a line on how you think this is progressing. In case you haven't noticed, there is a shoe theme going on. I got really excited when I thought of it, but if it bugs you, then just ignore it ;)_**


	5. Chapter 5: Tennis Shoes

_**AN/ **_**_I don't own Criminal Minds. Also, for a while I always referred to JJ/Sarah as whatever that person percieved her as at the time. So, JJ thought she was Sarah, so it was "Sarah thought" or whatever. But the line is starting to blur now, and it's just easier to call her JJ all around. Just so that no one gets confused. _**

* * *

_"The universe is wider than our views of it."_

_-Henry David Thoreau_

* * *

"How is she?" Rossi asked immediately as he picked up the phone. Emily and Garcia had taken JJ to the hospital once they arrived back in DC. He was certain that Emily was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Oh, she's fine. The baby's fine. Everything's just fine." Emily said quickly, obviously still in the presence of the blonde. He heard a door shut as she must have secluded herself in another room. "Dave--it's horrible."

"What do you mean?" He pried.

"She really doesn't remember anything. She doesn't remember Garcia--I think she was terrified to be in a room alone with her." Emily admitted.

"Well, I can understand that. _I'm_ scared of Garcia." Dave chuckled.

"This is not the time." Emily warned angrily. "I just don't know if I can do this."

"You can." Rossi said encouragingly. "I know you can."

"I'm not so sure." Emily shook her head, not knowing what to do.

* * *

The blonde sat on the bed of the guest room as she looked at the small bed where her son currently lay asleep. How could this all be happening? One minute she was happy, and the next it was as if the rug was pulled out from underneath her. Suddenly, it was as if everything she liked, everything she enjoyed was a lie.

Could it really be the way they said it was? Could she really have forgotten her son's father so easily?

No. There was no way she could have forgotten so much. She was certain of it. This all had to be some mistake. No matter how kind these people were, they would never replace the family that they forced her to leave behind.

* * *

"Hotch?" Emily asked in surprise as she opened the door. "What are you doing here?"

"Dave asked me to come. A personal favor." He smirked slightly as grateful realization dawned in Emily's eyes. "He thought you could use a break."

"From babysitting the 1950s Barbie? Hell yes." Emily sighed in relief.

"He's waiting downstairs." Hotch whispered.

"Why you?" Emily asked curiously. "Where's--"

"Emily. It's a Friday night. Everyone else was busy. I'm doing you a favor."

"Oh. So he had to drag you from the office, huh?" She teased slightly, unsure of why she felt so relaxed with her own boss.

"Something like that." Hotch admitted begrudgingly.

"We were just about to watch JJ's favorite movie." Emily informed him as she directed him to her couch and TV.

"Hi JJ." Hotch said as he approached the blonde who was knitting on the couch while Henry played with a toy car set in the corner.

"Sarah." JJ corrected automatically, not bothering to look up.

"I'm not _ever _going to call you that." Hotch stated simply.

"Um," Emily said unsure, feeling loyal to her friend, but desperately needing to get away from the entire situation for a while. Placing her hand on JJ's shoulder, she looked the blonde in the eyes and lied "I've got to go to the store. Will you be okay with Hotch for a while?"

Before JJ could respond, Hotch replied. "Of course we'll be fine."

"Ok." Emily almost darted out of the room.

For a while, the only sounds in the room were of Henry playing with his toys. He could feel the emotional icy wall the blonde was erecting between them. He didn't blame her. On the contrary, he was somewhat relieved that she still had the old spark that he was familiar with. Not bothering to try to break down JJ's defenses, Hotch slowly moved over to the young boy and stopped as familiar blue eyes looked up at him questioningly.

"Is it okay if I play?" Hotch asked.

Henry seemed to examine him for a moment before handing over a car for Hotch to play with.

"You don't have to do that." JJ said, a protective tone in her voice as she eyed the man and the boy in the corner.

"Do what?" Hotch asked.

"Play with him. It's a mother's job to--"

"To play with her son? Probably. But that's a father's job too." Hotch retorted.

"Fine." JJ said, her eyes never leaving them. Hotch smiled at the protective streak in the blonde. She loved her son and would do anything for him. Not wanting to upset her further, he decided to back off.

"That was fun Henry. You're good at playing." He smiled at the boy encouragingly.

Henry smiled widely at him before going back to something that captivated his attention.

"Thanks for letting me play." He said standing up and moving to sit on the couch.

He wouldn't have known that JJ had noticed his distance from the boy other than the way her jaw slightly released the tension it had been holding. Hotch tried to make conversation, "What are you planning on naming the baby?" He asked, settling for a safe question.

"Peter said her name should be Anna." JJ replied quickly.

"Peter's in prison. What are _you_ going to name _your _daughter?" He repeated firmly.

"I--I don't know. Anna probably." JJ eyed him insecurely, for the first time since his arrival really looking at him without a distrustful glare.

"And you don't even have an opinion? You aren't going to name your own child?" He asked incredulously.

"Her father gave her a name and--"

"Her father was a homicidal sociopathic cult leader that brainwashed you!" Hotch said in horror. "And you are going to let your daughter take a name that _he_ picked out. Without even thinking about it yourself?"

"I didn't really--"

"No." He said, slightly exasperated. He didn't want to be a jerk, but if JJ needed someone to push her to become the woman that she used to be, than he was willing to be the force that she needed. "I refuse to let you name your daughter Anna."

"Who are you to tell me what I can and can't do?" She retorted quickly. It was times like this, where he insulted her and pushed her more than anyone else could that he saw brief glimpses of the woman he used to know.

"What does it matter? You just want someone to tell you what to do." Hotch pointed out quickly. "You are _not_ naming your daughter Anna. Not unless you like it more than any other name on the planet."

"I always liked the name Penelope." JJ confided.

"Really?" Hotch looked at her in surprise.

"I don't think I've ever known someone named Penelope, I just think it's a pretty name." She defended, mistaking his surprise for disapproval.

"I think it's a beautiful name. But you _do_know someone named Penelope." He pointed out. Surely they hadn't missed something so basic as to go over everyone's names.

"I don't think so." JJ said unsurely. "I only knew Peter and his brothers."

"What about us?" He asked curiously, wanting to know how much she remembered versus how much she had been told of her old life.

"I know you, Emily, Garcia, Rossi, Reid, and Morgan. I know Emily's dating some man named Dave," JJ listed off the names quickly. "None of them are Penelope."

"What's my name?" Hotch asked.

"Hotch." JJ said as though it were obvious.

"What's my full name?" He pressed.

"Hotch?" JJ guessed, completely unsure.

Hotch chuckled. How was JJ supposed to get better when those entrusted with helping her were complete morons. "I'm Aaron Hotchner."

"Oh." JJ soaked in the information, though not really understanding why it was so important.

"Emily _Prentiss_, _Derek_ Morgan, _Spencer _Reid, _David Rossi_" He saw the understanding flash in her eyes as she made the connection. Pausing for effect, he added, "And _Penelope_ Garcia."

"Penelope?" JJ asked, surprised.

"Penelope." He assured firmly.

"Penelope." JJ said to herself, swishing the name around her mouth for a moment.

"Maybe you remember more than you think you do." Hotch mused, causing JJ to shrug.

"And maybe there is just a common phonetic sound that I enjoy that happens to be the first name of someone I just met." JJ retorted softly.

"And now you sound like Reid." Hotch nodded. "You should be yourself in no time."

"Will I? Because I feel like myself now." She confessed. "Or I did until I was taken from my home--"

"That place was never your home." Hotch interjected. "It was the home of an UnSub who wanted nothing more than to bring you to submission."

"Peter loves me." She insisted. "Anything he did to bring--"

"He doesn't love you." Hotch interrupted shortly. "He's a Narcissistic Sociopath who is incapable of loving anything, much less you. The only reason you aren't dead yet is because he enjoyed the idea of how much control he had over you. A federal agent who he managed to agree to have his child. You aren't his wife, you're an object that he finds fascinating. You're the crowing glory of his little collection--"

"He loves me." JJ snapped. "I have more faith in that than I do in anything else."

"Then it must be awfully hard to find out that its all a big lie." Hotch whispered snidely. "All of it."

"You want to hear hard?" JJ barked. "Hard is knowing that you were happy in whatever universe you were in and then have people force you to leave it. And then you are thrusted into this big wide world where no one gives a damn about you. And all the while everyone insists that you just try to remember it when you can't. Because its so easy for them to say, and then they're mad because you can't figure it all out. I was happy, why couldn't you all have left it alone?"

"Because you would have never really been happy." Hotch informed her seriously.

"You don't know that." She retorted quietly.

"Yes I do." Hotch promised. "Whether you want to realize it or not, I know you better than that. I may not know Sarah or whoever the hell you think you are. But I know JJ. I know who she was, and I'm not giving up until she's back."

"If JJ let this all happen to her, why would you want her back?" She asked pensively.

"Because she was incredible." Hotch confessed, more to himself than for her benefit.

"If she lived in this world." JJ said, looking around for emphasis. "I doubt she could have been perfect."

"Perfect, no." Hotch agreed. "But there was something more, there was fire. And while she was far from perfect, she was one of the strongest women I had the pleasure of meeting in my life." He looked at her with piercing eyes. "And I'd like nothing more than to see her again."

"For your sake, I hope you do get to see her again." JJ said softly, feeling a small amount of compassion for the man.

"For yours, I hope you do too." Hotch said, his mouth almost in a smile. "Now, I heard from Emily that we're going to be showing you your first movie. What would you like to see?"

"What was JJ's favorite movie?" JJ asked uncertainly.

"Clue." Hotch informed. "She loved the move Clue."

"Does Emily have it?" JJ asked, searching through the sprawling DVD case. Hotch picked it out in a moment, not admitting that he had watched his own copies dozens of times while she was missing.

"Let's watch it then." JJ said as he popped it into the player. Maybe she wasn't JJ yet, but she could be.

* * *

"So then there is the telegram girl, and she starts singing and all the sudden its BOOM, and she just--" JJ explained emphatically as she walked slowly around the park with Garcia and Emily the next day. "I laughed so hard and then, it has three endings, have you ever heard of such a thing? Three different, totally possible endings--"

"My favorite is the one where Ms. Scarlet is the one who done it." Garcia chirpped. "I just love Femme Fatals."

"Ooo me too." Emily agreed, finding JJ to be much easier to deal with after Hotch's intervention. At least she knew somethings stayed the same. "I'm glad you had fun with him."

JJ smiled slightly, neglecting to tell them about the part where Hotch had pushed her within an inch of snapping. Deciding that it wasn't important she stared down at her blue tennis shoes with new found interest. She examined the shoes carefully, now fully noting the outrageous pink stripes on the side of them--her growing belly prevented her from getting a good look at them on her feet. This was something that took getting used to, being allowed to wear shoes. She still had no idea how to feel about it. "Emily?"

"Yeah." She said, starting to try to wipe off some sweat from their exercising regimen.

"Is the Dave you're dating and Rossi that you work with the same person?" JJ asked quietly, causing Garcia to snort.

"Yes..." Emily trailed off nervously. "Why?"

"No reason." JJ shrugged, continuing on the walk.

* * *

_"Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread."_

_-Richard Wright_

* * *

**_An/ Go ahead and drop me a line on how you think this is progressing. _**


	6. Chapter 6: High heels

_**AN/ No, I don't own Criminal Minds**_**_. _**

**_Sorry to all of the faithful readers that had to wait for this chapter, I hope its worth it :) Let me know what you think._**

* * *

_"With_ _realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world."_

_-Dalai Lama_

_

* * *

_

"Hi Garcia." Emily sighed as she let the exuberant tech into her condo. "I'm glad you're here."

"What, is JJ being too much for you to handle?"

"No, _JJ_ would be fine. But this...whatever she thinks she is, I just don't know if I can handle it anymore."

"You're a saint Miss Prentiss." Garcia assured her as she stepped into the main room. "But I think I have just what the doctor ordered."

"JJ--" She called, knowing full well that she would find the blonde where ever Henry was currently stationed. She also knew her brainwashed blonde friend would bristle at being called JJ, but she had long since given up on caring whether JJ was pleased or not. The past few weeks had been a battle of wills between the former media liaison and her FBI colleagues, but Garcia was determined to win. She knew that if they could just help her remember, then all of this craziness would go away--and she would have her best friend back. That was one belief that Penelope Garcia clung to--not willing to believe that JJ was beyond hope.

Coming around the corner, Garcia smiled as she watched Henry play happily on the floor with his toy cars while JJ watched her son carefully. "JJ, I have a present for you."

"Really?" JJ questioned, not bothering to correct the people who insisted she was their friend. They were kind, and it would break their hearts if she constantly corrected them, so JJ had given up on trying to reassert the life that she knew. She knew that they were frustrated with her, but that didn't matter, because they were the ones who had kidnapped her from the life that made her happy.

"Yep. Actually, I have two presents for you." Garcia said exstatically.

"What's the occasion?" Emily queried as she walked into the room carrying a bag of chips and salsa. Sitting down on her couch as the three women shared the snack _almost_ felt normal to the two women who had missed their friend for so long. For the other woman, it felt like an odd sense of Deja vu.

"It's Friday!" Garcia stated happily, then at Emily's quirked eyebrow, she relented, "Ok, one of the presents is from Hotch--he told me to get it for you ASAP, and you know me, ASAP is my middle name. Then I couldn't help myself, I wanted to show you this--" She thrust the larger package towards JJ who eyed it unsure. "Open it!" She commanded.

"Ok." JJ chuckled at Garcia's exhuberance, but her package opening was thwarted as the large heavy package was snatched fom her grasp and replaced with a smaller one.

"Just kidding! We should save the best for last. Open Hotch's first." Garcia instructed, firmly having made up her mind.

"Are you sure?" JJ asked, eying the bright package warily.

"Most definitely." Garcia smiled proudly, belaboring any attempt that JJ could make to refuse the gift.

She made fast wrok of opening the gift that was wrapped in simple brown paper. She frowned as she realized what Hotch had gotten for her. "A baby name book."

"This will come in handy." Emily grinned as she lifted the small book from JJ's hands. Noticing the writing on the inside cover, she read aloud. _"I hope you find good use for this. I dare you to find a name that _**_you_** _like.__"_

"I should say you will. You _are_ having a baby after all." Garcia scoffed slightly. "Okay, open mine now." She commanded as she replaced the large ornately wrapped gift in JJ's lap.

Careful to protect the wrapping paper, JJ methodically pulled the tape and paper to unwrap the gift. "It's another book." JJ smiled gratefully at the eclectic cover and ran her fingers along the edge of the spine.

"It's not just any book. It's your scrapbook!" Garcia beamed with pride at her creation. "When you went missing, I had to go through all of your stuff--pictures, knick-knacks, whatever--and I got a flash of inspiration, and voila!"

"Garcia, it's beautiful." Emily agreed, looking over the cover that was a decupage'd collection of pictures. It was chaotic enough to identify Garcia as the creator, but the entire theme seemed unequivocally JJ.

"Here on the cover, these are all of the places you've been in your life." Garcia informed.

"Pittsburg." JJ's fingers carressed the school logo in the upper right hand corner.

"That's where you went to college." Emily supplied knowingly.

Seeing that JJ was in a contemplative state, Garcia happily continued. "I have all of your growing up pictures, but we can save all of those embarrassing moments for when we can properly humiliate you." Garcia smiled giddily as she turned to the middle of the book. "This is where I come in."

"The most important part." Emily scoffed.

"Naturally." Garcia smiled as JJ intently studied the pictures. Taking note of the one that she seemed focused on, Garcia couldn't help the grin as she explained. "That one was just after you joined the team. Everybody else was out in the field, and we spent all day looking up serial killer information on my computer. I never had so much fun."

"We played tetris." JJ murmured, fighting the headache that threatened to explode at any moment.

"We did." Garcia agreed as Emily looked on in shock.

"And this is a picture of before you met Will when we went up to New York for a day." Garcia pointed at the picture of the two of them on the busy city streets. She smiled triumphantly as JJ lingered over the next picture--one of JJ and Will in DC. JJ might be coming around sooner than she hoped.

* * *

The day passed quickly, and soon JJ found herself lying in bed, waiting for sleep to overtake her. She was slightly haunted by the pictures she had been shown earlier--evidence of a happy life, one full of satisfaction and fulfillment. It couldn't be that Peter had decieved her, that he had stolen a happy life from her. Her last thought before she drifted off to sleep was that Peter loved her, and there was no way he would betray her so completely.

_JJ shivered as she felt the cold permeate every inch of her body while she sat holding her son in the corner of the cinderblocked room that had served as her home for the last eternity. She had no idea how long she had been missing, but every moment felt as if it were an infinitely large span of time. She was resigned to the fact that she would likely never see her friends or family again. But she knew that no matter what, they would keep searching. They would never give up on her._

_She cradled her sleeping son's body closer to her own whispy frame, hoping to give him some semblance of warmth and comfort. But comfort was hard to find in the dank room that she was kept prisoner. It had only been a few days since she had made the decision that she hoped would not come back to spite her._

_Because in the end, in a choice between Henry and _anything _else, Henry would always win. Always._

_Her body ached from what she endured. At one point, she had entertained the thought of giving up. Of quitting. Because she hurt. Every inch of her. _

_But even as she looked down to the sleeping boy in her arms, she knew that she couldn't have made another choice. She couldn't give up, because the little boy in her arms depended on her. As it was, she felt no peace with the choice that had been thrust upon her. Because with each passing day in this hell hole, she felt the familiarity of her friends and family, even her own name, slipping away like sand falling from between her fingers. No matter how hard she tried to cling onto it, she couldn't keep hold. _

_But that didn't matter anymore. Because really they only gave her one option--to go along with them. She made a deal with the devil, because she couldn't bear to have Henry be hurt. If it came down to it, she would give up her own life if she had to in order to protect her son. She just prayed that it wouldn't come to that._

_She just hoped that when this was all over, she would remember who she was. She had been certain that she would be able to outsmart this group of male chauvinists. To fool them into believing that she was cooperating, only to be continuously calculating her escape._

_Now she wasn't so sure. _

_She quickly pretended to be asleep as she heard the door to her cell begin to open. She couldn't take much more of this, and she hoped by pretending to sleep, that she would have a few moments of solace before they resumed their torturous designs on her body and mind. _

_Apparently her acting skills worked well as her captors stood menacingly in her cell, looking over the woman that their leader had selected to become a part of the community. She relaxed immediately, hopeful that she would get some insight into her captivity._

_"It's coming along well, but she's still holding back. If she doesn't completely comply by tomorrow, kill the boy. That will crush her." The voice that spoke chilled her to the bone. What was more terrifying was the person behind the voice--Peter--the man she trusted. She knew they might have been having the entire conversation for her own benefit, but part of her wasn't so sure. Her eyes stung with the realization that she was completely alone. No one would protect her, and unless she gave into these monstrous men, no one would be able to protect her son, either._

_And that was something that Jennifer Jareau--No, Sarah Jane Cooper, she corrected herself--would not allow to happen._

JJ awoke with a start and rushed to the bathroom, her head throbbing and the content of her stomach emptying into the porcelain toilet. She vomited violently, dispelling the bile in her body as quickly as if she were discarding an outfit that she didn't want to wear. Apparently her episode awoke the rest of the house hold as she soon felt someone pull her hair back behind her head as she continued to vomit. Her body shook and trembled, a conditioned response to the torture that she remembered in far too much detail--regardless of how slim the memories were.

"JJ, are you ok?" Emily asked, her voice full of concern as the nausea subsided.

"I remembered." JJ said, the tears falling from her eyes as the realization hit her. Everything she knew, everything she believed--it was all a lie. Her head ached and her body trembled as whisps of memory returned to her recollection, mocking the life she thought she knew.

Emily sighed sympathetically and rubbed JJ's back comfortingly. "It's all going to be okay." She soothed.

And now she was carrying the baby of the man that did this to her.

That thought brought the nausea back in full form as she realized the treachery of Peter's debauchery. He had played her. He had deceived her. And she had _let_ him.

* * *

"Jayje, are you sure you want to do this? You don't have to." Emily cautioned as she removed her own weapon and handed her Glock over to the guard who nodded and let the two women through.

"I _do_ have to do this Emily." JJ reaffirmed for the millionth time.

"You don't have to prove anything to anyone JJ." Morgan agreed. In the three days since JJ's memory had returned, JJ had only wanted one thing. To be able to confront the man who was responsible for her current condition. Nothing that anyone had said had dissuaded her. Which is why Emily and Morgan now stood flanked on either side of the blonde, entering the Federal Penitentary.

"I have to prove something to _myself._" JJ insisted, the soft patter from her black high heels beckoning the other Agents to follow her. She had a monster to confront. And it couldn't wait any longer.

When they entered the interrogation room, the two profilers sat on the side of the wall, allowing JJ the space to do what she needed to, but not willing to leave her side. They were keeping a close eye on her, knowing that although she may have remembered some of what she had experienced in her year and a half in captivity, she still didn't remember everything before her abduction.

McCombs was ushered in by two guards and secured to the seat across from JJ. He watched her closely, but she kept her face devoid of the turmoil she was inwardly experiencing.

"Sarah, you look like a whore." He said, his voice devoid of the love that she was certain had to have been there at some point. She couldn't have just imagined the feelings between them, could she have? "Why are you here?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Morgan bristle with protectiveness. She smiled as she remembered why she was so insistant on seeing him.

"I needed to speak with you." She said, allowing the love she felt for the man that she knew was evil to seep into her voice. This was going to be hard, and she prayed that she would have the strength she needed to confront him. "Is it true? Did you really kill Will and kidnap Henry and me?" She asked, knowing the answer but still not wanting to believe it.

McCombs simply smiled. "You know, I didn't think it would be so easy."

"What?" She asked, trying to prod him to continue.

"Controlling you." He said simply. Not for the first time, she was struck with how handsome he was. Chisled strong features betrayed the monster that was within Peter McCombs, a monster that only JJ had witnessed first hand. Her heart sank as she realized that was as close to a confession as she was ever going to get.

"You never controlled me." JJ smiled, her mask of control betrayed by only the moisture in her eyes that threatened to fall.

"Oh, didn't I?" McCombs scoffed slightly. "I had you wrapped around my little finger, Sarah."

"It's JJ." JJ grumbled.

"Don't talk back to me!" McCombs ordered sternly as JJ immediately quieted. She cursed herself for her immediate submission to the man who had destroyed everything she had ever loved.

"It's over." JJ smiled as she stood and left the prison room. McCombs had no control over her. Not anymore. Even though she may not remember everything about her past, she remembered enough.

Now it was time for her to get her life back.

* * *

_"There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something."_

_-Henry Ford_

* * *

**_An/ Go ahead and drop me a line on how you think this is progressing. I struggled with this chapter, so I'd like to know what you think-Especially about JJ remembering, I hope I didn't gloss over that too quickly._**


End file.
